Battle lines drawn at photokinaBy admin, on September 20th, 2010
Rating 3.83 out of 5
Samsung and Sony are set for a battle royal over the next couple of years. At photokina, Samsung’s Monday 20th press conference made great store of ‘all our own work’ – that everything in the NX100 was sourced within Samsung. From the floor, a question far cheekier than I would have dared ask – ‘Are you working on making low noise sensors?’ – from Samsung, a deadpan reply that they were, indeed, working on lower noise sensors.
The NX100 is superficially a great concept, but the design based on ‘a dewdrop forming on a leaf’ has been seen before (it slips out the hand as easily as a dewdrop from a leaf) and is based on the idea that today’s rear-screen composers use two hands to hold the camera. Well, I have news for Samsung; they don’t. They generally use one. Even I do. So having aperture control from the focus ring of the lens, like an old-fashioned compact or rangefinder leaf-shutter model, is not a winner when your left hand is not actually going to be anywhere near the camera.

At the Pentax stand, marketing chief for the UK Marilyn Dixon proudly showed the K-5. I will admit, this is the camera Sony should have been showing. “We must tell you straight away that this camera uses a Sony sensor”, she said. “Sony make very good sensors”. What of Samsung? She was not sure if they were still selling any K-mount cameras. Pentax might never have used a Samsung sensor, ever, from the impression gained. They were using Sony sensors and Sony were the best.

Samsung previewed a line of rollout lenses from 2010 to 2012 for the NX100. The last phase included an 18-200mm and a 16mm f/2.8 pancake – they were going to match Sony blow for blow, and add half a dozen of the lenses which Sony NEX adopters most wanted. And they said they would issue a firmware update for the NX10 to allow it to use the new i-Fn (assignable function to the focus ring) lenes. But they had little care whether NX10 or NX100 were fully cross compatible with the glass in their owners’ hands now and to follow. Clearly the NX10 is a past episode; the NX100 is the real thing.

What a contrast at Pentax! No plans for an EVIL future. But – did you know that every Pentax lens with an ultrasonic motor also has a screw drive? And every screw drive body can also operate those lenses, and every new body can operate both types?

We have yet to visit Sony, but there is nothing new – A33, A55, A560, A580. There is nothing with the magnesium body, weather seals, superb glass prism, workable contrast-detect AF, and lovely compact but chunky size of the K-5. It has been left to Nikon (D7000, based on D90) and Pentax to be the first to exploit the new Sony 16 megapixel sensor in a semiprofessional body.

And Panasonic – they were great, inviting us on to an empty half-finished stand to see the latest stuff. Including a 14mm f/2.5 pancake looking so much like the NEX 16mm!

Samsung said that this year’s 1.4 million mirrorless camera sales would rise to over 15 million and eclipse DSLR sales by 2015. Maybe they are right. They also say they will be the leader. Who knows?
- David Kilpatrick

A7xx concept, a couple of lenses. including the 500f4 in silver. and accessories.

Well it's seems to be what most people feared. Quite a few have seem to have given up on them(although that might be just a small percentage). No progress seems to have been made since PMA and all that.

I can kind of see their plan though. Release the mid-range stuff this year, and attack the semi-pro, pro level next year. Yeah it does suck, they have released loads of mid-range, beginner stuff over the last couple of years. But I'm willing to stick it out with them.

Although to be honest maybe that's because I'm still not in the market for a new camera, while others have been waiting for a replacement for quite a while. Although Ebay might just become quite an interesting place.

Mal

Last edited by Mal on Tue Sep 21, 2010 10:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Here’s what a PROFESSIONAL thinks over at The Luminous Landscape.
Reviewed by Michael Reichmann.
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I believe that the Sony A55 will also be seen as belonging to this pantheon. With its 16 Megapixel 1.5X sensor with clean high ISO capability and overall image quality goodness as its core, Sony then adds solid video capability with superior autofocus tracking, 10FPS shooting, greatly improved multi-point autofocus (though occasionally a bit flaky), a high quality electronic viewfinder, and an articulated high resolution LCD.

Add to this in-body stabilization that works with all lenses, all of Sony's current fancy shooting modes like sweep panorama, multi-shot HDR, six-frame-merging low light capability, and multi-frame noise reduction for shots up to ISO 25,600, and you have a solid (though small and light weight) picture taking machine, with as many gadgets and gizmos as anyone could want. The potential appeal of the A55 should therefore be obvious.

Oh yes, there are the 30+ Sony lenses available, not to mention the superb Alpha Zeiss lenses that leave little to ask for when it comes to optical and mechanical quality.

Did I mention that all of this comes in on the A55 at under $750?
The only real fly in the ointment is the currently crippled video mode that lacks manual settings for shutter speed and ISO. Also the camera will be of reduced interest to serious video producers without 24P mode. If Sony does, as they have indicated they might, provide manual video settings their sales will increase dramatically among those interested in video, and if they were to add 24P they'll have to beat videographers off with a stick.

The bottom line is that one can read all the specs, reviews, and test reports that one wishes, as well as all the chatter found on on-line forums. But the proof of the pudding is in the shooting (to mix a metaphor), so if the capabilities of the A55 appeal, my suggestion is to visit a dealer or a Sony store and check one out for yourself.

I think that time and the marketplace will show the A55 to have been a pivotal camera for Sony, as it brings a lot of new technologies to bear in a well specified and well priced camera.

I fully expect Sony to introduce much of what has been introduced with the A55 into higher specs models over the next couple of years.

The EVFThe camera's EVF combined with its pellicle mirror will likely remain controversial until more people discover how much better it can be than the small and dim "window at the end of a tunnel" that most reduced-frame DSLRs currently offer. But, anyone coming from a full-frame camera, such as Sony's own A900, will find the view dimmer than they might prefer. The day of the all conquering EVF just isn't here yet, though these are getting better all the time.

GhostingThere has been chatter on the forums about ghosting being seen on some images taken with the A55. This apparently caused by the use of a pellicle mirror.
I've seen the online examples, but have not seen any evidence of ghosting in any of the hundreds of frames that I have shot myself, including ones where I deliberately tried to make it happen. To the extent that there is such an issue, I regard it as quite minor and of the pixel peeping variety, and unlikely to be of issue to most photographers who aren't micro-examining their images at 200% on-screen.

I read that review few days ago and I was happy that Sony has developed this kind of a camera, which would please people whom are interested this kind of camera. But I didn't know they are going to put this technique to more advanced semipro models.

Even though I'm not very good photographer, I have a dream that I could be pro someday and use Sony as my tool. Thus I'm not extremely happy about this direction of development. Maybe I'm too conservative in this matter.

For me dslr:s are firstly for taking pics, secondly taking short video clips. Dslr wouldn't be my tool for making longer videos. I like the idea to shoot video with dslr, but if this is the way.... I'm not sure at all...

Technology waits for no one, and change is a freaky thing.
The word is that the new 7x and 7xx will be even more advanced and powerful than the 5x.
Dyxum has countless pages on the subject.
You should look at other brands if you’re concerned.

I'm holding judgement until the actual camera is on the streets and can be tested...seems a little pointless to drive oneself to excitement or disappointment without seeing how the camera will actually function.

For me, I'm an optical viewfinder fan, and in all current iterations of EVF, my biggest sticking points are: 1. inability to track real-time panning of a subject (all EVFs so far show some form of stagger of previous frames making it harder to accurately track a fast-moving subject) and 2. battery life (So far no EVF cameras are rated to approach the shot duration of the better DSLRs). So for now, they're not for me. The A33 and A55 look like very interesting cameras and might work beautifully for some folks - the EVF burst-tracking is a no-go for me as is the battery life.

But who knows what the A7x will deliver? Have they figured out a better way to deliver panning/tracking burst sequences on the EVF? Have they developed a user-controllable EVF experience that allows a choice between a realistic view or gained-up view? Have they decided to use the A700/500 series battery, and with modern power conservation it achieves a 1,000+ shot life? Have they worked out a tilt with the mirror whereby they can alleviate the possibility of ghosting issues that might occur? Have they added a more advanced focus system with more cross points and better tracking focus than ever before? Groundbreaking burst speeds? Some new feature or function never yet known before?

We don't know yet. So despite being an OVF fan, and despite not having seen an EVF which I feel can be an acceptable option for my type of shooting, I remain open minded and reserving of judgement until the actual product hits the market.

You're right, I work part time in a camera store and got my hands on one very early on, the first thing I did was try it in manual focus, took a photo of a staff members hair which is one of the best way to check the sharpness of a lens. Stopped it down to ƒ11, the 85ƒ1.4 CZ lens and tried to find a focus point. The EVF is no where near as good as a OVF and sony needs to jump away from this asap. I love my sony cameras, but if this is where their range is heading people will jump.

BTW, you get less shots out of the EVF than the LCD screen. anyone else think thats weird?

Agreed...I don't like the direction in general, if indeed they were to commit to it fully. The saving grace of the recent announcements was the A560/580 for me - nicely improved and upgraded versions of the already excellent a500/550. If the next A7 series were to be introduced with an EVF only, I'd hope that an OVF version comes along as well, which would again save hope. But if all future releases start leaning to no OVFs - then they better come an extremely long way in developing EVFs, because the current ones would not work for my shooting.

Rumors currently hint at a hybrid OVF/EVF, with a pellicle style mirror but a secondary pellicle allowing a 30% optical and 70% electronic combined view. While interesting, especially if it can solve the stagger/delay when shooting bursts, it still doesn't quite solve the gain-up required for the light lost, nor the small possible issue of ghosting, unless the mirror can be flipped up for long exposures.

I'm still willing to wait and see though - I'd accept an EVF if it could truly replace an OVF - which would have to mean live streaming of image during panning/tracking and burst shooting, and would have to mean realistic gaining down of the image to actual light levels, rather than artificially gaining up the view all the time. And battery life would have to triple at least, with the sensor overheating issues solved 100% even for extremely heavy shooting of 2,000+ frames in warm weather.